Japan’s plans to restart the Sendai nuclear reactor won’t be affected by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Ontake, the government said. The reactor is in a separate volcanically-active area, which rose concerns for its safety after the Saturday eruption.

The eruption that is
presumed to have killed over 30 people and left dozens injured is
not a reason for a safety reassessment for the Sendai plant,
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news
conference.

"This was a steam-driven [eruption] and it has been said it
was extremely difficult to predict," Reuters cites him as
saying.

Opponents of the nuclear restart, who gathered Sunday for a
protest rally in Kagoshima on the island of Kyushu in Japan’s
southwest, where the power plant is located, say that is exactly
why they don’t want it to be operational again.

"No one knows when natural disasters, including earthquakes
and tsunamis will strike. The fact that they could not predict
the Mount Ontake eruption highlights that," said Yoshitaka
Mukohara, one of the organizers of the demonstration.

"There were plumes above Sakurajima yesterday and today. We
have no idea when something might happen," he said in a
reference to Mt. Sakurajima, a volcano located some 50km from the
facility. The volcano experiences hundreds of minor eruptions
annually.

Japan shut down all its nuclear reactors in the wake of the
Fukushima disaster. The Sendai facility was cleared on September
10 by the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) to be restarted. The
watchdog said the danger of major volcanic activity in the area
during the reactor’s lifespan was negligible.

The plans to bring back online the nuclear power plants cause
protests among many Japanese, who remain fearful of nuclear
technology. The government insists that the risks are small and
that the reactors are necessary to provide cheaper energy to the
economically-challenged Asian nation, which used to rely on
nuclear power for a great part of its electricity generation
before the Fukushima disaster.

Meanwhile, rescue operation involving some 550 people resumed on
Monday after a break prompted mid-Sunday by a strengthened smell
of sulfur at the mountain indicating poisoning risk.

Four deaths have been confirmed on Sunday and 27 people declared
in “cardiac arrest” – a term indicating that doctors could not
officially certify death yet.

Some 40 people received injuries from the sudden eruption that
pondered the area around Ontake with ash and stones, and sent
dense smoke clouds down the slope. About 150 people fled the area
as it was being covered by a blanket of ash up to 20cm deep.

The 3,067-meter volcano is the second-highest in Japan and a
popular hiking spot, especially in autumn during the turning of
the leaves. Its sudden eruption on Saturday took many hikers by
surprise and became the first fatal volcano event in the country
since 1991. Ontake’s last major eruption was recorded in 1979.